Page 21 of Defenseless
He was closing his texting app when another idea came to him. Sending a quick message to his brother, Ryan, he asked for Olivia’s number. A few seconds later, her contact popped up in the thread.
Rising from his seat as he hit the Call button, he started to pace. One ring, then another. When it rang for the third time, he braced himself to leave a message. He wanted answers now, but he couldn’t force Olivia to answer her phone. Especially not in the last few minutes before the lunch break started.
In the middle of the fourth ring, it wasn’t her voice mail that answered, though.
“Hello?” she said.
“Olivia, this is Chad Warwick.”
She paused. He and Olivia were friends in the way those who’d grown up together were. But they weren’t close friends.
“Hi, Chad. Is everything okay?”
“Have you seen Sabina today by any chance?”
“I saw her this morning, but not since. Is she okay?”
“When did you see her?” he asked, ignoring her question a second time.
“She dropped her car off and borrowed mine. She said she had some errands somewhere south and wanted a more comfortable car for the highways. She’s also considering getting the same make and model I have so may have wanted to test drive. We’d been talking about that.”
“And she didn’t say where she was going?”
“Should I be worried? Oh, hell. Never mind. I’m worried.”
Chad inhaled a slow, deep breath. “I didn’t mean to worry you, Olivia. I’m sure she’s doing exactly what she said she was going to do. But she hasn’t checked in with her team today, which is unusual. It’s possible that she’s out of cell range, though, or busy with something else. Did she tell you when she’d bring your car back?”
“She said she’d be back by five. She left me the keys to the Jeep and said she’d meet me at my place to return my car and pick hers up. She promised me a full tank of gas and a detail job as a thank-you, although I told her not to bother.”
Chad glanced at the clock on his wall. Five o’clock was four and a half hours away. He stopped his pacing and sank onto the leather couch that lined a wall of his office. He had no clue where Sabina was, and now he’d have to spend the next 270 minutes thinking about all the possibilities. “Let’s wait until five. If she doesn’t show up, call me. If she does, can you ask her to call me herself?”
“Of course,” Olivia replied. He made sure she saved his number, then the two hung up. He debated whether to call Stella and Hunter. On one hand, he was certainsomethingwas going on with Sabina. On the other, running to the bosses seemed extreme.
His eyes flitted to the clock again. Four and a half hours.
Sabina had no idea what was waiting for her when she returned. Wherever she was, doing whatever she was doing, he hoped she was enjoying her short-lived reprieve.
CHAPTERNINE
Sabina parkedthe Honda CRV she’d borrowed from Olivia in the shade of an oak tree and scanned the park. Tulare was just a little bigger than Mystery Lake, but as a Central Valley town, it had a much different feel to it. The land was flat and relatively sparse. She suspected there was a historic downtown core somewhere, but the park was located in the middle of a newer sprawling development.
Spotting a lone figure on one of the swings, a woman Sabina knew almost as well as she knew herself, her heart dipped. How much had they lost, how much had they missed and given up because of the decisions they’d made so many years ago?
Pushing aside the maudlin thought, she exited the car and started toward the playset. Taking a seat on the swing beside the occupied one, she finally looked at the woman’s face. A face identical to hers in so many ways.
“I missed you,” Sabina managed to choke out. And then both women were up and hugging. A tear or two might have appeared as well. But if there was one person in the world Sabina trusted with her pain, it was this woman.
Her sister.
When the moment quieted, Kara stepped back and retook her seat on the swing. But as when they were little, she took Sabina’s hand and the two swayed together, staying at the same pace. Staying connected.
“You look good,” Sabina finally said.
Kara cast her a wan smile. “I look like you, of course I look amazing.” Kara was the younger twin. By two minutes.
Sabina smiled back. “Not with your hair and colored contacts, you don’t.” Sabina’s hair fell to below her shoulders and was their natural light strawberry blond. Years ago, Kara had chosen to color hers a rich mahogany and cut it short, somewhere between a pixie cut and a bob. Kara also sported contacts that turned her blue-green eyes—eyes the same shade as Sabina’s—more of a green-gold.
A crow flew overhead and cawed, drawing Sabina’s gaze away from her sister. When she dropped it again, it was no surprise to find Kara still looking at her, drinking in the sight.
